Today the work began! With thanks to Hank Schmalzried & Kevin Motsavage from our friends at ESCA Blast who are donating all equipment and services to help restore The Little Stone House. Friends of The Little Stone House volunteers were at the ready to do the work of removing the decades of graffiti through a process using low pressure limestone media. A dusty but environmentally safe cleaning method. It was a hot but rain-free morning, and much progress was made.

Work ran from 9am to about 1pm, and will continue weekdays until approximately June 22, unless we finish up early. Everyone was pleased with how much progress was made on this first day, and we are hopeful for a good stretch of dry weather. Thank you to everyone involved!

Recorded on June 29, 2019 after the last cleanup before graffiti removal commences. Documenting the decades of vandalism and abuse about to be cleaned away.

Thank you to those volunteers who helped us with the last CleanUp scheduled for the season! Aside from tending to The Little Stone House, fall mums were planted around key spots around the Fonthill Grounds. Thank you to all our volunteers over this past year! Your efforts will pay off next year as BIG changes are readied for early next spring.

September 15, 2018 was a great day for showing the house some community love. 19 people from the community helped out, including members of Telford, PA Boy Scout Troop 14, and Doylestown’s Girl Scouts 21852. All of these people made quick work of clearing back some regrown brush, and tidying up around the house perimeter. It might seem like coming back to pull out new growth and tidying up isn’t much progress, but it shows the community that there is a new respect and care for the house, which will help instill a sense of community pride to keep it neat, and not vandalize. One big positive part of our earlier season efforts: the poison ivy did not grow back! All of us who suffered with rashes after those clearings of a few months back–it was not for naught!

Another positive: this month we noticed very little new trash outside as compared to other clean ups. So maybe our caring for the house is rubbing off on others. Time will tell.

Thank you again to all of our volunteers! Stay with this page, and our Facebook Group for more updates on the status of restoration. Next clean up is October 6th!

The day finally arrived. Earth Day, 2018. On what turned out to be a beautiful Spring day, lots of volunteers came out to help at the main Fonthill Grounds, as well as The Little Stone House. Today’s task was just to cleanup a lot of the weeds and brush and debris that surrounds the house. An important first step to being able to do bigger restoration efforts. Earth Day (April 22, 2018) was a very symbolic day to start this, but there will be more cleanups scheduled throughout the coming months to keep up on it. A lot of hard work this day by many volunteers, some of whom are now recovering from poison ivy exposure. Thanks to all for their efforts!  Below is a short video of the cleanup, with some factoids about the history of The Little Stone House.

Earth Day Clean Up: The Little Stone House in Doylestown, PA from TebWeb on Vimeo.